Re: ISSUE-81 (resource vs representation)

On Sep 28, 2009, at 5:33 PM, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

>
> On Sep 28, 2009, at 5:18 PM, Nikunj R. Mehta wrote:
>
>>
>> On Sep 28, 2009, at 4:35 PM, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Before I go searching in the spec, may I ask if you were sincerely  
>>> unable to find the answers to the following questions in normative  
>>> spec text?
>>
>> Short answer - NO.
>
> All right, I'll reply further after I have had a chance to  
> investigate. I agree that the spec should not leave questions  
> unanswered.
>
>
>>>> Can "resource" be all of the following at the same time?
>>>
>>> As far as I can tell, yes. Can you clarify which of the following  
>>> properties you think are mutually exclusive?
>>
>> I have listed above that which I think are mutually exclusive. If  
>> you think I am not making sense, can you please point out where and  
>> why?
>
> With reference to your original question, "Can "resource" be all of  
> the following at the same time?", it seems to me that, yes, the same  
> entity could have all of the properties below simultaneously. Or at  
> least, I do not see any obvious contradiction. The way you phrased  
> it made it sound like you think it's not possible to have all of the  
> properties below at the same time. Did I understand that correctly?  
> If so, can you give an example of which properties are logically  
> incompatible, and why?

There is contradiction between 2, 4, on one hand and "bag of bits" on  
the other. A bag of bits is a passive entity, e.g., something burnt  
onto optical media. Until it is read and interpreted by a program, it  
has no life of its own and certainly cannot generate Request-URIs or  
have semantics such as cookies.

Just like is there no meaning to saying that a bit sequence has  
permission flags, although a file implies a certain bit sequence and a  
certain set of flags, a resource purported as a bag of bits does not  
have any metadata either.

There is no need to pretend that a resource is a simple thing like a  
bag of bits. Leaving a light weight abstraction over the bag of bits  
is actually quite valuable to interpose such things as variable  
representations, multiple methods, and metadata.

>
>>>
>>>> A resource may have metadata (per section 2.5.1)
>>>> A resource may generate Request-URIs (per section 2.1.1)
>>>> A resource may be external or not (per section 2.1.1)
>>>> A resource has semantics (per section 2.1.1)
>>>> A resource has a format or type (per section 2.1.1)
>>>> A resource may have metadata (per section 2.5.1)
>>>> A resource has an identifier (per section 2.5.1)
>>>> A resource can be fetched (per section 2.6)
>>>> A resource may be incrementally processed (per section 2.6)
>>>> A resource may or may not be available (per section 2.6)
>>>> A resource may be cached (per section 2.6)
>>>> A resource may be type sniffed (per section 2.6)
>>>> A resource has a host (per section 2.6.2)
>>>> A resource can be either binary or text (per section 2.6.3)
>>>> A resource has cookies (per section 3.1.3)
>>>> Something may be a subresource (per section 4.2.4)
>

Nikunj
http://o-micron.blogspot.com